serein
English
Noun
serein (uncountable)
- Alternative form of serene (“light rainfall from a cloudless sky after sunset”)
- 2000, Raphael Confiant, Mamzelle Dragonfly:
- "She must have caught a chill from the serein, that's all!"
French
Etymology 1
Inherited from Old French serein, probably from seri (“calm, mild”), serrit (with a change of suffix influenced by Latin serēnus), from a verb deriving from Latin serēscere (“grow dry”), itself from or related to serēnus (“cloudless”), by extension "calm, peaceful".
Derived terms
Etymology 2
Either from Latin serenum (“good weather”), or from Old French serein (“evening”), from Latin serum.
Further reading
- “serein”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Old French
Alternative forms
Etymology 1
From seri (“calm, mild”), serrit (with a change of suffix influenced by Latin serēnus), from a verb deriving from Latin serescō, serēscere (“grow dry”), itself from or related to serēnus (“cloudless”), by extension "calm, peaceful".
Descendants
- French: serein
Etymology 2
From a derivative of Latin serum.
Noun
serein oblique singular, m (oblique plural sereinz, nominative singular sereinz, nominative plural serein)
Descendants
- French: serein